More from the Yashica-D

Which surprises me, because it has no built-in light meter. Using an external meter isn’t hard, but I vastly prefer having one built in so I can assess exposure right in the viewfinder. So much so, that a dozen other meterless cameras with sweet lenses lie about my house in disuse.

But not the Yashica-D. I keep returning to it. I had a weekend afternoon free right after Christmas last year, so I spooled in a roll of Kodak E100G slide film and went out for a drive, stopping to photograph whatever felt good.

My drive led me to South Broad Ripple. My brother works for a software-development consultancy there, and I know one of the partners, so I felt like I could park in their lot and walk around from there. The defunct Monon Fitness Center is next door. The building isn’t much but the faded sign is cool.

Around the corner, Locally Grown Gardens is year-round fruit and vegetable stand in a former gas station. They also have a small menu; you can have lunch there. The property has been in my lens a number of times, as there’s usually something interesting to capture there.

I also made yet another visit to Crown Hill Cemetery. I couldn’t get enough of the joint late last year.

Crown Hill contains a National Cemetery. I find it challenging to shoot because of the tiny gravestones, which I suppose is why I keep shooting it.

It’s too bad that Kodak has discontinued E100G. (Fortunately, I have four more rolls in the fridge.) To my eye, it captures reality. These colors are very much as the day was: nature was muted and undersaturated, which made the man-made colors stand out.

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10 thoughts on “More from the Yashica-D”

Good results with the E100G film and the Yashica D. The colors look very accurate to me. I especially like the one from the National Cemetery. I have a Yashica D that Has been sitting around here for a while. I am waiting for some better weather to get out and test it.

I like your photos, the Yashica D is a nice camera. I feel spoilt with my Yashica Mat 124G with it’s built in meter but I must take it out more I have roll of Ilford FP4 in it at the moment. I have only ever tried B&W films in it
before but you have inspired me to try some color films have you any sugestions on what colour films to use.

As you have demonstrated, it is hard to beat the Yashica lenses for sharpness and contrast. You got me looking at my Yashica-Mat again, and it is likely I’ll get some film in it again soon.

I would use the Yashica-Mat more often if it were not for something of a mismatch between the viewfinder and my vision. When looking at the ground glass screen, I need to use my reading glasses. With the magnifying lens flipped into place, however, the view requires my unassisted distant vision. It works out ok if I proceed with some deliberation, but getting in a hurry often causes me to miss the proper focus.

I think what these old cameras do, is make us slow down and think about really making a picture. There is something about the process with mechanical cameras…and perhaps the very act of rolling a new frame of film in front of the shutter that slows us down to a gentler and more peaceful time. Or at least, it does for me. I find when I am shooting with one of my old Nikon F2 cameras, and even more so with the 12 shots available on my Hasselblad 500 series, that I am really thinking about what the final product will be. The whole experience is more tactile. I am indeed grateful to the digital age for making these old classics affordable for us to try. And cheers to those of us who do!

The afternoon I shot this roll was one where I could get off by myself and take things slow. Having to carefully frame, stop to meter, and wind the film made the experience a lot more meditative. It stood in contrast to the rest of my thousand-miles-per-hour life.